Virginia Beach mulls data center moratorium until it can devise regulations

Virginia Beach, Virginia, is considering a 12-month moratorium on new data center permits as the City Council and Planning Commission work to establish comprehensive zoning regulations for these facilities. The proposed resolution, to be reviewed by the City Council on Tuesday, aims to provide city staff with time to research and develop clear industry standards, given the current absence of specific zoning uses for data centers that allows them to be built "by-right" in industrial areas.

City leaders, including Planning Commission Chair John Coston, have expressed a desire to avoid large-scale data centers and implement oversight through conditional use permits. The city's zoning administrator, Hannah Sabo, indicated that staff are developing an ordinance to define data centers as a specific use requiring conditional permits, while also considering aspects such as water and power consumption, size limitations, and noise studies.

This initiative mirrors actions taken by other Virginia communities, such as Chesapeake and Suffolk, which have enacted or considered moratoriums and zoning amendments due to local pushback. Chesapeake, for instance, may require conditional use permits after rejecting a data center proposal in 2025 following resident concerns about noise, electricity, and water usage. The moratorium in Virginia Beach is seen as a necessary step to enable the city to complete its regulatory framework amidst the evolving data center industry.